Women's World T20 | Shafali Verma has licence to play fearless cricket, reveals Shikha Pandey

02/25/2020

Shikha Pandey has revealed that Shafali Verma has the licence to play fearless cricket from the team management as the teen sensation produced another explosive innings to win against Bangladesh in the Women's T20 World Cup. Pandey has also added Shafali is amazing at the young age of 16.

While Shafali Verma was the star of the show against Bangladesh Womenn, 19-year-old Jemimah Rodrigues also impressed with a measured 34 from 37 before her bowling colleagues restricted Bangladesh to 124 for 8 in their 20 overs to win the match by 18 runs. Indian right-arm bowler Shikha Pandey revealed that the team management has given Shafali Verma the license to play fearless cricket after the teens explosive innings of 39 off just 17 deliveries which included 2 fours and 4 maximums.

"We have not asked her (Verma) to change anything. She has been given a free licence to play her fearless brand of cricket. She is amazing. At 16, I hadn't even started training to become a cricketer. I'm very pleased to have such young fearless players in our team. It's amazing to see them doing what they did for us. I’m confident the world will be seeing more of the same from the exciting young pair in Australia," revealed Pandey, reported Times Of India.

"There's no baggage, that's the biggest thing, and they express themselves so well in the team. We thought we had a great score on the board to defend today because we believe in our bowling department. We knew it would be a tough target for them to reach," the pacer added.

Bangladesh top scorer Nigar Sultana was also full of admiration for Verma and she also pointed out the 30-run contribution of Bangladesh's own young star Murshida Khatun at the top of the order.

"Shafali Verma played absolutely brilliantly. But Murshida Khatun played very well with the bat for us - she's in good form nowadays," Joty said.

Having won both their first and second match in the World Cup, team India are all set to take on the Kiwi woman on February 27 in Melbourne.